Style points do not determine advancement to the second day of the NCAA Division I wrestling championship.

Mental toughness and the ability to know when to rule and when to cool do.

"In these situations, the most important thing is just to get the win," said Northwestern 285-pound fifth seed Mike McMullan, an Easton native who went to Wyoming Seminary and reached the quarterfinals with a pair of careful if effective triumphs. "If you have to compromise your position to fend off a move just to get a win, you do what to do to get the win."

Four Express-Times area wrestlers -- McMullan, Oklahoma State senior and Easton Area High School graduate Jordan Oliver, Maryland's Jimmy Sheptock of Northampton and Lehigh's Robert Hamlin -- remain alive in the championship bracket and will wrestle in the quarterfinals Friday morning at the Wells Fargo Center.

Several others -- including Saucon Valley graduate Brandon Palik, now at Drexel, and Lehigh freshman Randy Cruz, a Bethlehem Catholic alum -- lost the kind of second-round heartbreaker that comes with being just not quite strong enough or lucky enough, when it mattered.

Palik was tied 1-1 with No. 2 seed Quentin Wright of Penn State midway through the third period of their second-round match. Palik was wrestling a smart and defensive match, avoiding Wright's upper-body moves. But Wright turned a single-leg takedown into a double with 57 seconds left and held on for a 3-2 decision.

Cruz, a true freshman who lost 3-0 to Wisconsin two-time All-American Tyler Graff in the second round at 133 pounds, said, "He wasn't doing that much, but he was able to slow me down and frustrate me from what I wanted to do."

So far nobody in the 149-pound bracket has been able to slow down the top-seeded Oliver, who rolled into the quarterfinals with a pair of major decisions, 16-6 over David Habat of Edinboro and 13-3 over Virginia's Derek Valenti. In those matches, Oliver, a 2011 national champ and 2012 runner-up, piled up 12 takedowns.

However successful those performances may have looked, they did not meet the 35-0 Oliver's high standards. He slammed his headgear against the wall of a ramp heading to the locker room following the Valenti win and did not return to speak to reporters.

Oliver will meet No. 9 seed Jake Sueflohn of Nebraska in his quarterfinal.

Sheptock, the No. 7 seed at 184, advanced with the same kind of smart match McMullan did. He rolled over Shane Woods of Wyoming 13-4 in his opening match but then squeezed past No. 10 seed Jacob Swartz of Boise State 3-2 in the next round.

"The first match I thought I was in good positions and was getting some good shots," Sheptock said. "The second match was against a much better opponent and I knew I needed one really good shot. Out here, it comes down to takedowns; usually, you've got to get takedowns. Once I took him down, I was a little more defensive because (Swartz) hadn't taken many shots."

Sheptock will face No. 2 seed Ben Bennett (29-0) of Central Michigan in his quarterfinal. The two have some recent history.

"I lost to him 1-0 in the semifinals at the Midlands Tournament (at Northwestern in December), and I almost had a takedown at the end," Sheptock said. "I have to be more aggressive than I was. Last time I knew he was a three-time All-American and I was just was finding out about him."

McMullan moved on with a pair of decisions, 6-2 over Dan Scherer of Stanford and then 7-5 over No. 12 seed Adam Chalfant of Indiana.

"I think I'm wrestling well. The hardest thing at this tournament is getting into the tournament, to get going," McMullan said. "I've wrestled Chalfant a few times. We go back and forth, but lately I have been getting the better of him. These matches were good; they give me something to build on."

McMullan will face No. 4 seed Chad Hanke of Oregon State in his quarterfinal.

Quarterfinals were in short supply for Lehigh's five-man contingent. Only the third-seeded Hamlin, who beat Casey Newberg of Kent State 7-3 and then old rival Daniel Rinaldi of Rutgers 6-3 at 184, is alive in the championships. Hamlin will meet No. 6 Ryan Loder of Northern Iowa in his quarterfinal.

The shock of the tournament for Lehigh came when junior Joey Napoli, the third seed at 157, was eliminated after losing his opener 6-0 to Indiana's Taylor Walsh and then falling 7-1 in a consolation to Daniel Zilverberg of Minnesota.

"Both times he was going for reversals when he should have just gotten his point (for an escape)," Lehigh coach Pat Santoro said. "He did not look like himself, you could see that. He broke routine in preparing for the matches today, no one knows why. You can't think too much out here, you just have to wrestle. You think too much and you are done. You have to be tough to win out here."